Jammu and Kashmir Democratic Liberation Party demanded on Saturday that India and Pakistan allow free movement of affected families and relief volunteers on either side of the Line of Control in the wake of the massive earthquake that devastated the region.

"I appeal to India and Pakistan to keep aside political and geographic disputes and allow people of the divided Kashmir to visit each other to share their grief and sorrow," Hashim Qureshi, chairman of JKDLP, told reporters on Saturday.

He urged the two countries to provide travel documents to Kashmiri groups who wish to join relief operations on either side of the Line of Control.

Demanding restoration of telephone links between the two sides, he said, "Both New Delhi and Islamabad should arrange special television programmes and other facilities so the divided families can communicate through them."

Qureshi said he wanted to send a team of 200 party workers across the LoC to take part in relief operations there. "Every Kashmiri interested in going to Pakistan-occupied Kashmir should be allowed to," Qureshi said.

Qureshi cautioned the government on the looming threat to the lives of the survivors from the fast approaching winter and called for necessary measures for their rehabilitation.